Want to help ease hunger in your community? Set a bag of canned goods out by the mailbox Saturday

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Donate nonperishable food items on May 12 to the 26th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Leave bagged items at your mailbox to be picked up by your letter carrier. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)

Here’s a reminder that it’s that time of year again. No, we’re not talking about Mother’s Day — how could you forget that?

We mean this weekend’s annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive conducted by the folks who deliver the mail.

“Fill a Bag. Help Feed Families,” is the message to encourage donations of canned and other non-perishable food on Saturday, May 12.

It’s as simple as bagging or boxing food items and placing it near your mailbox ahead of the usual mail delivery time.

Members of the National Association of Letter carriers all across Southern California and around the country will do the rest, picking it up and transporting it to local post offices where volunteers arrive by the truckload to bring it to food banks, pantries and other charities.

All donations are distributed within the communities where they are collected.

Donate nonperishable food items on May 12 to the 26th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Leave bagged items at your mailbox to be picked up by your letter carrier. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)

Eagle Community Credit Union supported the 25th annual National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive in 2017. It was the ninth year the Lake Forest-based credit union had sponsored food bags for the mail carriers to distribute in the local Santa Ana Postal District that serves most of Orange County. (Courtesy of Eagle Community Credit Union)

More than 50 Eagle Community Credit Union employees and their families volunteered in 2017 at four local post offices to unload and sort incoming donations for local Orange County food banks. The volunteer effort was a part of the 25th annual National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, which collects food for local food banks. (Courtesy of Eagle Community Credit Union)

Begun in 1993, Stamp Out Hunger is the biggest single-day food drive in the nation, harvesting 1.6 billion pounds of food since it started. The effort brought in 75 million pounds of food last year.

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Leading the collection drive in 2017: Branch 24 of letter carriers in Los Angeles, who picked up 2.2 million pounds of food.

“It’s a lot of food, but not nearly enough,” said Evelina Ramirez, a USPS media spokesperson in Los Angeles.

“We still have 42 million Americans, 1 in 6, who currently don’t know where they are getting their next meal.”

Southern California also accounted for two other areas in the Top 10 last year. Garden Grove’s Branch 1103 letter carriers hauled in 1.4 million pounds, second to Los Angeles, and down in San Diego 700,000 pounds was collected by Branch 70.

Other areas in the region also provided significant contributions in 2017:

Pasadena 381,000 pounds

San Bernardino 160,000 pounds

Van Nuys 122,000 pounds

Santa Ana 76,000 pounds

Palm Springs 39,000 pounds

In addition to postcards sent this week as a reminder of the food drive, letter carriers delivered bags to some households in areas, provided by sponsors. Partners in the endeavor include United Way, AARP Foundation and several other labor unions.

Operators of food banks point out that the timing for the drive is crucial: Food donations from the community tend to slow down in the summer, while the need continues.

“Many vulnerable families in Orange County continue to struggle to put food on the table,” said Mark Lowry, director of the OC Food Bank.

The post service doesn’t discourage anyone from donating non-perishable food directly by bringing it to their local post office on Saturday, Ramirez said.

Suggested items, with an emphasis on healthy, include: canned soups and vegetables; canned meats and fish; pasta rice or cereal.

Theresa Walker is a Southern California native who has been a staff writer at The Orange County Register since 1992. She specializes in human interest stories and social issues, such as homelessness. She also covers nonprofits and philanthropy in Orange County. She loves telling stories about ordinary people who do the extraordinary in their communities.